Are you planning to attend Catalyst West Coast? If so, I have a limited offer for folks that want to stop killing cockroaches. I’m hosting a lunch gathering on Friday, April 24 at the conference. Here are the details:

• free lunch
• free copy of Killing Cockroaches
• free advice on how to stop “killing cockroaches”
• but it’s only open to the first 40 people (Sorry, we’re full.)
  

Obviously, this opportunity is only available to folks who are registered to attend Catalyst West Coast. If you haven’t already, you should do that. The conference is taking place on April 22-24, 2009 at Mariners Church in Irvine, CA. The event will include worship by Hillsong United, Steve Fee, Aaron Keyes and Joel Auge. Speakers include:

• Perry Noble (my boss!)
• Guy Kawasaki
• Andy Stanley
• Craig Groeschel
• Rick Warren
• Ravi Zacharias
• Luis Palau
• Francis Chan
• Erwin McManus
• Brian Houston
• Catherine Rohr
• Jud Wilhite

The first day, April 22, will feature Catalyst Labs in partnership with Origins. The labs are interactive sessions that include talks from people such as Dave Gibbons, Alan Hirsch, Blake Mycoskie, Erwin McManus, Eric Bryant, Dan Kimball, Jamie Tworkowski, Margaret Feinberg, Mark Batterson and many others.

So, that’s the scoop. Act quickly. Act now. I’d love to buy your lunch at Catalyst.

I’m getting peppered by requests for the Unleash videos from last week. We’ll make them available on the Unleash site soon. For those who can’t wait, here you go:

Now you can see what all the chatter was about. Share them with your friends.

We’ve had some new positions added to the job board in recent days. Check out these cool new roles. Here are all of the ministry positions recently posted to the Job Board:

• Multimedia Director | Lexington, Kentucky
• Director of Kidz Community | Elizabeth City, North Carolina
• Youth Pastor | Vancouver, Washington
• Technical Services/Multimedia Assistant | Sewickley, Pennsylvania

There are a number of other positions available on the job board, so check out the entire list.

If you have a position that you’d like to let others know about, you can advertise that role on the job board for only $49 for 30 days.

• 3:38 PM tonymorganlive - I’ll be live blogging Perry’s final session here later this afternoon.
• 3:43 PM tonymorganlive - Final session starts at 3:30 pm Eastern Time.
• 4:02 PM tonymorganlive - 25 minutes until go time.
• 4:26 PM tonymorganlive - Worship starts in 5 minutes. I don’t have any idea what Perry is going to say. Should be interesting…as always.
• 4:33 PM tonymorganlive - And…we’re live. Worship just started for the final session. I’m hanging out in the new student ministry auditorium. I love this new space!
• 5:01 PM tonymorganlive - Here we go. Perry just took the platform.
• 5:01 PM tonymorganlive - “If this is the first time here, we’re one of those megachurches that waters down the Gospel.”
• 5:02 PM tonymorganlive - He’s talking about the shirt Steven Furtick bought him.
• 5:03 PM tonymorganlive - “If you don’t have leadership that’s on fire, you can’t expect your people to be on fire.”
• 5:03 PM tonymorganlive - “Aren’t there days when you just want to quit?”
• 5:10 PM tonymorganlive - “I want to talk with you about staying in the game.”
• 5:10 PM tonymorganlive - Question #1: “Who is with me?”
• 5:13 PM tonymorganlive - “Average stay for a pastor in America is 22 months.”
• 5:15 PM tonymorganlive - “Satan doesn’t want to split your church. He wants to split your staff.”
• 5:18 PM tonymorganlive - “You’re going to get pissed at your pastor. It’s going to happen.”
• 5:19 PM tonymorganlive - “He’s called to lead. The sheep don’t lead the shepherd.”
• 5:20 PM tonymorganlive - (Perry, I’ve got your back.)
• 5:21 PM tonymorganlive - Question #2: “Am I pleasing you?”
• 5:21 PM tonymorganlive - (These are questions to ask God.)
• 5:24 PM tonymorganlive - “I was wearing the shirt that Pastor Steven bought me.” (You had to be here.)
• 5:28 PM tonymorganlive - “You might have to get out of church work to get back into ministry.”
• 5:29 PM tonymorganlive - Rick Warren: “Ministry is not achieved but received.” (I can picture Rick saying that.)
• 5:30 PM tonymorganlive - “Why are you in ministry? The mercy of God.”
• 5:31 PM tonymorganlive - “Am I placing limits on me that God hasn’t placed on me?”
• 5:32 PM tonymorganlive - Question #3: “Will we see you?”
• 5:36 PM tonymorganlive - “Do you want attendance or repentance? Because you can have attendance without repentance.”
• 5:38 PM tonymorganlive - Question #4: “What’s next?”
• 5:42 PM tonymorganlive - “We don’t want to become a museum. We want to be a movement.”
• 5:58 PM tonymorganlive - (Praying for my pastor.)
• 6:02 PM tonymorganlive - That’s it. Thanks for hanging out here today.

• 8:19 AM tonymorganlive - Good morning friends. I’ll be live blogging at least the two main sessions from Unleash 09 today. First session starts at 9:00 am Eastern Time.
• 8:20 AM tonymorganlive - You can also watch the main sessions with live chat on www.NewSpring.cc.
• 8:21 AM tonymorganlive - For everyone following the action on Twitter, use hashtag: #unleash.
• 8:22 AM tonymorganlive - I’ll be back a little later this morning to continue the live blogging.
• 9:27 AM tonymorganlive - Are you still there? Only 30 minutes until launch!
• 9:34 AM tonymorganlive - We just “opened the doors” to the Unleash LIVE site. Join the chat.
• 9:42 AM tonymorganlive - The team just prayed with Perry. It’s go time in about 15 minutes.
• 9:59 AM tonymorganlive - 30 seconds until worship.
• 10:03 AM tonymorganlive - Unleash 09 has been…how shall we say this…unleashed.
• 10:28 AM tonymorganlive - Welcome everyone. Perry just took the platform. He’s praying. So am I.
• 10:30 AM tonymorganlive - Perry just mentioned me (and my website.) :-)
• 10:30 AM tonymorganlive - He’s talking about shagging.
• 10:31 AM tonymorganlive - “All of us like to shag. Some of us are better at it than others. I’m not that good at it. But my wife shagged a lot in college and she’s awesome.”
• 10:33 AM tonymorganlive - “Instead of building His church, we’re asking Him to build our church.”
• 10:34 AM tonymorganlive - I’m watching this session LIVE from the new student ministry building in Anderson. It looks like Perry’s standing on the platform…only he’s on video.
• 10:35 AM tonymorganlive - “Are we willing to embrace change?”
• 10:35 AM tonymorganlive - “The Gospel doesn’t change, but the church has to.”
• 10:36 AM tonymorganlive - “The number of Christians in America is declining. Why? I blame the church.”
• 10:42 AM tonymorganlive - “Everyone here can look at another church and call the change they need to make. But can you do that for your church?”
• 10:43 AM tonymorganlive - “The church has a choice: change or die.”
• 10:45 AM tonymorganlive - “We have Beth Moore but they had Mary. That’s awesome!”
• 10:45 AM tonymorganlive - “You can’t plan a move of God.”
• 10:46 AM tonymorganlive - “It’s always bothered me a little bit that people plan revivals.”
• 10:46 AM tonymorganlive - “A movement of God is messy.”
• 10:47 AM tonymorganlive - “Someone said, ‘That’s the place where sinners go.’ Dang straight. And they’re all on staff.”
• 10:50 AM tonymorganlive - “We have to get comfortable being uncomfortable.”
• 10:50 AM tonymorganlive - “How do you get people to give? You have to preach on it. Only the people who aren’t giving will leave.”
• 10:54 AM tonymorganlive - “God gets more glory in a bad economy than he does in a good economy. None of the CFOs are clapping.”
• 10:56 AM tonymorganlive - “The pastor can’t do everything.”
• 10:59 AM tonymorganlive - “Where do you get the idea for multi-site? Acts 8.”
• 11:04 AM tonymorganlive - “‘You need to put down the beer.’ You need to put down the Twinkie.”
• 11:04 AM tonymorganlive - “If you you want change in your church, you have to do more than pray about it.”
• 11:12 AM tonymorganlive - “‘But she has a good heart.’ Yea, but her voice is horrible.”
• 11:12 AM tonymorganlive - “Pastors, get a group around you that investigates the obvious.”
• 11:13 AM tonymorganlive - “Ignore the jackass.”
• 11:14 AM tonymorganlive - “In Greek, jackass is translated blogger.”
• 11:19 AM tonymorganlive - “Are we serious about reaching the world?”
• 11:19 AM tonymorganlive - “I think a lot of churches aren’t serious about reaching the world.”
• 11:22 AM tonymorganlive - “Four terms over-played in the church today: contemporary, blended, missional, emergent.”
• 11:24 AM tonymorganlive - “Jesus died so that we can reach people.”
• 11:25 AM tonymorganlive - “God didn’t call your church to condemn the city. God called your church to reach the city.”
• 11:33 AM tonymorganlive - “Why would you want to limit what God could do in his church?”

We’re launching a new service on Sunday that’s targeting people living on the West Coast. The service will start at 11:00 am Pacific Time (2:00 pm Eastern Time) on the NewSpring Web Campus.

Now you’ll be able to sleep in on Sunday morning. Enjoy your Sunday paper. (Do people still read newspapers?) And, then join us for worship and teaching at 11:00. The service will typically be hosted by Nick, our web campus pastor. If Nick gets his way, I’m guessing a service for his friends in London is next.

Join us this Sunday as we continue the Where’s My Bailout? series. If you missed last week’s message, this video will catch you up to speed.

Do you have friends or family living out west who aren’t currently connected to a church? This may be a easy, first step to help them consider the claims of Jesus.

Hope to see you online on Sunday.

Last week I wrapped up Seth Godin’s most recent book called Tribes. I loved it. It’s a small, powerful book about leadership. People don’t normally think of marketers as being leaders, but Seth makes a strong case for the need for leaders to build tribes to accomplish a vision.

Here are some of the highlights from my reading:

• “The real power of tribes has nothing to do with the Internet and everything to do with people. You don’t need a keyboard to lead…you only need the desire to make something happen.”
• “Heretics are the new leaders. The ones who challenge the status quo, who get out in front of their tribes, who create movements.”
• “For the first time ever, everyone in an organization—not just the boss—is expected to lead.”
• “Managers make widgets. Leaders make change.”
• “Marketing is the act of telling stories about the things we make—stories that sell and stories that spread.”
• “Marketing used to be about advertising, and advertising is expensive. Today, marketing is about engaging with the tribe and delivering products and services with stories that spread.”
• “People yearn for change, they relish being part of a movement, and they talk about things that are remarkable, not boring.”
• “Leaders make a ruckus.”
• “There’s a difference between telling people what to do and inciting a movement. The movement happens when people talk to one another, when ideas spread within the community, and most of all, when peer support leads people to do what they always knew was the right thing.”
• “Ideas that spread, win. Boring ideas don’t spread. Boring organizations don’t grow.”
• “Fear of criticism is a powerful deterrent because the criticism doesn’t actually have to occur for the fear to set in.”
• “Great leaders don’t try to please everyone. Great leaders don’t water down their message in order to make the tribe a bit bigger.”
• “When you fall in love with the system, you lose the ability to grow.”
• “When you hire amazing people and give them freedom, they do amazing stuff.”
• “The religion gets in the way of the faith. Static gets in the way of motion. Rules get in the way of principle.”
• “The safer you play your plans for the future, the riskier it actually is.”
• “The organizations that need innovation the most are the ones that do the most to stop it from happening.”
• “Growth doesn’t come from persuading the most loyal members of other tribes to join you. They will be the last to come around. Instead, you’ll find more fertile ground among seekers, among people who desire the feeling they get when they’re part of a vibrant, growing tribe, but who are still looking for that feeling.”
• “The largest enemy of change and leadership isn’t a ‘no.’ It’s a ‘not yet.’ ‘Not yet’ is the safest, easiest way to forestall change.”
• “If it’s about your mission, about spreading the faith, about seeing something happen, not only do you not care about credit, you actually want other people to take credit.”

Like all of Seth’s book, this is a quick, easy read, but it’s packed with rich insight. It’s one of those books you should engage with your team.

For those who have already read the book, how did it impact you and your leadership?

This Thursday, we’re hosting our third Unleash conference at NewSpring Church at our Anderson campus. Here’s what to expect:

• 3,000 registered guests eager to learn and be inspired
• 500 volunteers ready to serve
• 100 NewSpring staffers ready to both learn and serve
• 2 main sessions with loud music for the young people
• 1 Perry Noble with more Perryisms than you can shake a stick at (My son loves it when I use that phrase.)

Now you can watch it live (in your skivvies if you’d like) from the comfort of your own home via the World Wide Web. Don’t worry it’s all FREE.

Earlier this afternoon, we launched the Unleash 09 site that will offer live streaming of the main sessions, chat, Twitter updates and a schedule of all the action. You have to provide your own skivvies.

Tell the neighbors. Tell your friends. We’re giving it all away. Enjoy!

I’m preparing my breakout session for Thursday. We’re hosting Unleash 09 at NewSpring. Almost 3,000 people are registered. I’m expecting exactly 4 of those people to be at my breakout session. If you’re one of those 4, here are my notes. I’ll be talking through this for about 30 minutes. Then we’ll have about 30 minutes for Q&A.

Yes, multi-site changes everything. (And, in case you’re wondering, web campuses change everything else.) That’s what I’ll be talking about on Thursday. Feel free to start leaving your questions as comments on this post. I’ll start with those.

See you on Thursday. Be there or be square.

Someone who I really respect in the world of music said Kelly Clarkson’s new album is actually better than the release from U2 last week. Now you can decide for yourself. Listen to her new album for free here:

If you like what you here, the album is available for download on Amazon.